FlexDaddy » AIR Camp

Building desktop applications with HTML and JavaScript

Andrew Spaulding — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:10:12 +0000

This session at Adobe AIR Camp introduced traditional HTML and JavaScript developers to the AIR SDK and how to use the the various binaries (ADL and ADT) to develop, test, and package desktop applications. The session included a basic introduction to the AIRAliases.js file and it’s importance when coding against the AIR runtime with JS.

What I find really helpful is the Adobe AIR Language Reference for JavaScript developers. This is a subset of the ActionScript 3.0 Language Reference and includes all the AIR specific features that you as a JavaScript developer can access within the AIR runtime.

For the basic application seen below you can develop using your favorite text editor and the Adobe AIR SDK, download the Adobe AIR extension for Dreamweaver CS3, or even try developing with Aptana. I really like Aptana as it can be installed as a plugin for Eclipse and sit right beside my Flex development perspective.

For other AIR development tools click here.

Download the source code for the application below.

Your first desktop application with HTML and JavaScript

<html>
 
<head>
<title>Our first HTML AIR application</title>
 
<script src="AIRAliases.js" ></script>
<script>
   function doLoad()
   {
      alert("Simple alert to show we can include regular JS scripting");
   }
 
   function writeFile()
   {
      var file = air.File.desktopDirectory.resolvePath("sample.txt");
	  var stream = new air.FileStream();
 
	  stream.open( file, air.FileMode.WRITE );
	  stream.writeMultiByte( document.getElementById('textInput').value , air.File.systemCharset );
	  stream.close();   
   }
 
</script>
 
</head>
 
<body onLoad="doLoad()">
   <h2>AIR HTML/JavaScript Sample</h2>
   <p>This sample application will take a simple text input entry and write this out to the contents of a file on the users desktop</p>
   <input type="text" id="textInput" value="www.flexdaddy.info"/>
   <input type="button" onClick="writeFile()" value="Save to desktop" />
</body>
 
</html>

And the application descriptor/manifest file

< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/1.0">
    >com.flexdaddy.samples.htmlair>
    >v1>
    >aircamp_sample>
    >
        >airsample.html>
        >true>
        >400>
        >350>
    >
>

Download the source code for this application.

Build your first AIR application with Adobe Flex

Andrew Spaulding — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 01:53:15 +0000

Adobe Flex really is the development tool and platform of choice for developing desktop experiences on Adobe AIR. This slide deck was presented as part of a series of topics covered at Adobe AIR Camps throughout Australia and New Zealand. Take a look, download it, and share it! If anyone is interested in the demo files the Flex Builder project archive can be downloaded here.

The presentation introduces Flex Builder, the Flex framework and the AIR runtime by creating an application with a transparent window (thanks to Matt Voerman for providing the pretzel image!) that uses custom chrome and native window commands to move and close the application.

Take a look at the sample project, and if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.

AIR Camp keynote slides

Andrew Spaulding — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:05:07 +0000

Below are the keynote slides from the recent Adobe AIR Camps throughout Australia and New Zealand. Thanks to everyone who attended, and a special thanks to both Mark Blair and Matt Voerman who presented at the events as well, and to Mike Downey for presenting the keynote in Sydney while on his visit to WebDU 2008.

Over the next few days I’ll post slides and references to the rest of the content we covered at the AIR Camps.

Building desktop applications with Adobe Flex
Building desktop applications with HTML/JavaScript
Deploying and updating your AIR applications
Data intensive AIR applications

Be sure to take a look at the following links to some great applications. A real nice showcase of what’s possible!

Adobe AIR Showcase
Adobe AIR Marketplace